For U.S. states observing CST (those entirely within are Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin), here’s when the total lunar eclipse will take place:
Moonset during partial eclipse.
(Suggestion: let's allow Montgomery voters to decide the police staffing at Pike Road first?)
A bill that could put state officials in charge of police staffing in Montgomery is expected to reach the Alabama Senate floor next week.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road), would allow the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to step in if class C municipalities fail to meet minimum police staffing levels. That would apply to Montgomery and Huntsville.
“The Montgomery Police Department, the men and women that serve there do an awesome job buy and large, and I’m grateful that they are there,” Barfoot told Action 8 News. “But it makes it a lot more difficult for them to combat crime and do what they’re supposed to do if they’re at a staffing level that is less than what they need to be at.”
Montgomery has a population of just over 200,000 people, according to 2020 census. Barfoot says the city needs two officers per 1,000 people to police effectively.
from a NY Times editorial
"...a decision made by one man with no legal basis, little public support and no coherent explanation of an endgame."
Supporters say it’s needed to address staffing shortages, while critics argue it threatens local control.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road), would allow the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to step in if class C municipalities fail to meet minimum police staffing levels. That would apply to Montgomery and Huntsville.
“The Montgomery Police Department, the men and women that serve there do an awesome job buy and large, and I’m grateful that they are there,” Barfoot told Action 8 News. “But it makes it a lot more difficult for them to combat crime and do what they’re supposed to do if they’re at a staffing level that is less than what they need to be at.”
Montgomery has a population of just over 200,000 people, according to 2020 census. Barfoot says the city needs two officers per 1,000 people to police effectively.
“400 is the minimum that Montgomery needs for these police officers to be effective in their job. That’s not a random number. It wasn’t just picked from the air, that’s from the City of Montgomery Police Department’s former interim police chief,” Barfoot said.
The Montgomery Police Department has not publicly released its current staffing numbers, citing safety concerns. Barfoot says credible sources tell him the department has between 220 and 230 officers — about 40% fewer than the recommended minimum.
According to the bill, Montgomery would be required to increase its net number of officers by 10% each year. If the city fails to meet those benchmarks over a five-year period, ALEA could step in, develop an operational plan and contract with other law enforcement agencies to help patrol the city.
Barfoot said the city would have to reimburse the state or other agencies for the expenses they incur in helping the police department.
He says the city already budgets for enough officers and would not need to raise taxes to comply with the requirements of the bill.
But Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed strongly opposes the bill. In a statement, Reed says recruiting and retaining officers is a challenge nationwide.
“Recruiting and retaining law enforcement officers is a challenge facing cities across Alabama and the nation. SB 298 imposes a one-size-fits-all staffing mandate and authorizes state operational control if that threshold is not met. That is a significant change to how public safety is governed at the local level, and we have serious concerns about its impact on municipal accountability,” Reed said.
Barfoot says the state has the authority and responsibility to intervene.
“All municipalities, the 400 and some odd municipalities throughout the state, are creations of the state legislature, and so we have the ability, authority and obligation to make sure the people we represent are safe to the best of our ability,” Barfoot said.
He praised the Metro Area Crime Suppression unit (MACS) for helping lower crime in Montgomery, but says it’s not a long-term fix. MACS is made up of various agencies who pitch in to help patrol Montgomery and make arrests.
“The state taxpayers from other areas of the state are probably not going to, as far as their representatives and senators, not going to want to continue to fund something that is specifically for a certain area,” he said.
The bill passed the County and Municipal Government Committee earlier this week. Barfoot expects it to come up for debate on the Senate floor next week.
Source: The NY Times:
"And by the way, there’s no such thing as a “Congressional Medal of Honor,” as Trump kept calling it. It’s just the Medal of Honor. The fact that the commander in chief doesn’t know this was embarrassing. And telling.
“The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon.” America has undertaken the largest air power buildup in the region since the Iraq war. Outlets including The New York Times have reported that the military has given Trump the option to strike as soon as this weekend.
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In January 2026, the U.S. government approved the potential sale of American-made missiles to Denmark to strengthen its defensive capabilities in and around Greenland. On its face, the transaction looked routine: a NATO ally purchasing weapons through the Foreign Military Sales program to improve readiness and interoperability.
The surrounding political context, however, made the deal unintentionally comic. The same U.S. administration approving the sale had spent months publicly floating the idea that the United States should acquire Greenland itself.
FULL STORY is HERE.
Jennifer LindahlHere are the states that rank in the bottom 10 of WalletHub’s survey.
A column by Emily Galvin Almaza in the NY Times
Free buses? Really? Of all the promises that Zohran Mamdani made during his New York City mayoral campaign, that one struck some skeptics as the most frivolous leftist fantasy. Unlike housing, groceries and child care, which weigh heavily on New Yorkers’ finances, a bus ride is just a few bucks. Is it really worth the huge effort to spare people that tiny outlay?
It is. Far beyond just saving riders money, free buses deliver a cascade of benefits, from easing traffic to promoting public safety. Just look at Boston; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Kansas City, Mo.; and even New York itself, all of which have tried it to excellent effect. And it doesn’t have to be costly — in fact, it can come out just about even.
As a lawyer, I feel most strongly about the least-discussed benefit: Eliminating bus fares can clear junk cases out of our court system, lowering the crushing caseloads that prevent our judges, prosecutors and public defenders from focusing their attention where it’s most needed.
I was a public defender, and in one of my first cases I was asked to represent a woman who was not a robber or a drug dealer — she was someone who had failed to pay the fare on public transit. Precious resources had been spent arresting, processing, prosecuting and trying her, all for the loss of a few dollars. This is a daily feature of how we criminalize poverty in America.
Unless a person has spent real time in the bowels of a courthouse, it’s hard to imagine how many of the matters clogging criminal courts across the country originate from a lack of transit. Some of those cases result in fines; many result in defendants being ordered to attend community service or further court dates. But if people can’t afford the fare to get to those appointments and can’t get a ride, their only options — jump a turnstile or flout a judge’s order — expose them to re-arrest. Then they may face jail time, which adds significant pressure to our already overcrowded facilities. Is this really what we want the courts spending time on?
Free buses can unclog our streets, too. In Boston, eliminating the need for riders to pay fares or punch tickets cut boarding time by as much as 23 percent, which made everyone’s trip faster. Better, cheaper, faster bus rides give automobile owners an incentive to leave their cars at home, which makes the journey faster still — for those onboard as well as those who still prefer to drive.
How much should a government be willing to pay to achieve those outcomes? How about nothing? When Washington State’s public transit systems stopped charging riders, in many municipalities the state came out more or less even — because the money lost on fares was balanced out by the enormous savings that ensued.
Fare evasion was one of the factors that prompted Mayor Eric Adams to flood New York City public transit with police officers. New Yorkers went from shelling out $4 million for overtime in 2022 to $155 million in 2024. What did it get them? In September 2024, officers drew their guns to shoot a fare beater who was wielding a knife and two innocent bystanders ended up with bullet wounds, the kind of accident that’s all but inevitable in such a crowded setting.
New York City tried a free bus pilot program in 2023 and 2024 and, as predicted, ridership increased — by 30 percent on weekdays and 38 percent on weekends, striking figures that could make a meaningful dent in New York’s chronic traffic problem (and, by extension, air and noise pollution). Something else happened that was surprising: Assaults on bus operators dropped 39 percent. Call it the opposite of the Adams strategy: Lowering barriers to access made for fewer tense law enforcement encounters, fewer acts of desperation and a safer city overall.
If free buses strike you as wasteful, you’re not alone. Plenty of the beneficiaries would be people who can afford to pay. Does it make sense to give them a freebie? Yes, if it improves the life of the city, just as free parks, libraries and public schools do. Don’t think of it as a giveaway to the undeserving. Think of it as a gift to all New Yorkers in every community. We deserve it.
Emily Galvin Almanza is a founder and the executive director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit organization that seeks to transform public defense. She is the author of “The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender’s Search for Justice in America.”
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.
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An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the cause of a police shooting in September 2024. While the encounter began over an unpaid subway fare, officers drew their weapons after the passenger took out a knife.
President Donald Trump admitted he feels “terrible” about the shooting deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, but said he’s was more upset about Good because her parents are “tremendous Trump people.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2026/see-chatgpts-hidden-bias-about-your-state-or-city/?itid=mr_1
"In December alone, Donald Trump has lent his name to a new class of warship that the United States will build in the coming years, to the U.S. Institute of Peace, and to Washington’s grand performing arts and music center, the renowned Kennedy Center. As of last week, it is officially called The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center.
Even before that, the president promised to erect a triumphal arch on the National Mall, and began demolishing the East Wing to make way for a new ballroom whose gigantic dimensions will dwarf those of the White House. When it’s finished, it will be called — you guessed it — The Donald J. Trump Ballroom.
There’s also Trump Rx, a website where the government aims to offer prescription drugs at discount prices; the Trump Accounts, an investment account for children that is paid out to the recipient upon turning 18; and the Trump Gold and Platinum Cards. These offer a shortcut for individuals and companies in a hurry to obtain U.S. residency and can afford to spend amounts starting at one million dollars, described as donations to the Department of Commerce."
Personally, I will buy NOTHING witg
From a N.Y. Times story:
"...a Trump Penn Station, in the heart of Manhattan, would rub his nname in the faces of all those snooty New Yorkers who continue to deny him the respect he has craved for his entire adult life. No matter how rich or successful he becomes, Mr. Trump, a Queens native, remains an outer boroughs boy stewing over the contempt of his hometown’s cultural elite."
(*I too am a Queens native...another "outer Borough boy."......his home, a mansion by comparisor, was a dozen blocks or so from the modest house where I grew up, on 214th Street in Queens Village.
Trump gained a second term in part due to support among voters without a college degree; the president bested Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris by 14 points among that group, according to CNN’s exit polling in 2024, said the network’s Harry Enten.
"What was once a huge strength for Donald Trump has quickly become a losing issue for the president, according to a new poll.
Trump won the 2024 election in part due to his perceived strength on immigration and border security issues.
But now, six in 10 respondents in an NBC News Decision Desk/Survey Monkey poll released Wednesday say they somewhat or strongly disapproved of Trump’s handling of those issues.
That 60% figure includes 49% who strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration and border security -- 1 10% spike from last summer and 34% who said so in April, according to the poll.
Strong disapproval of independents is up 11% from August, the poll found."
Source: AL.COM story HERE.
Alabama population is almost completely vaccinated against Measles, but the number of cases across the country is growing.
HERE is the latest information from the CDC.
The Hardy Boys series features two brothers, Frank and Joe Hardy, who solve mysteries. These books have been loved by generations of young readers. The first sixteen Hardy Boys books are believed to have been written by a Canadian author named Charles Leslie McFarlane. However, he followed detailed plans for each story. These plans, called outlines, described the plot and characters.
The original ideas for these outlines came from Edward Stratemeyer, who founded the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Later, his daughters, Edna C. Squier and Harriet Adams, continued to create the outlines. Edna and Harriet also carefully edited all the books in the series until the mid-1960s. Many other writers contributed to these early books, including Amy McFarlane, John Button, and Andrew E. Svenson. Harriet Adams and Andrew E. Svenson were key in developing most of the story outlines. Starting in the late 1950s, more writers and editors joined the team. They helped update the stories to keep them fresh and exciting for new readers.
"In 1849, Edgar Allan Poe wrote "A Dream Within a Dream," a poem in which he may have reflected on the last days of his life. The author died that same year in Baltimore, Maryland, on Oct. 7 at age 40.
"All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream," Poe wrote.
This poem — which has themes of mortality, and of time or life slipping away like "grains of golden sand" through his fingers — is the topic of a free discussion happening Feb. 10, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at downtown's The NewSouth Bookstore, 105 Court St., Montgomery." (Source: Advertiser story HERE.
From The Montgomery Advertiser:
"For viewers skipping the Super Bowl halftime show tonight, Turning Point USA is offering a different halftime experience for those looking for an alternate option.
Turning Point USA, a conservative organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, announced the lineup for its “All-American Halftime show” on Feb. 2.
Conservative commentators and President Donald Trump criticized the selection, calling it divisive and questioning his popularity, even though Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most-streamed artist globally in 2025.
Turning Point USA said the show is intended as a “family-friendly, patriotic alternative” for viewers who prefer a different halftime experience."
